Sam Mendes

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Samuel Alexander Mendes (born 1 August 1965) is an English film producer, film writer, and stage designer best known for his directorial debut film American Beauty (1999), which earned him the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Director, the crime film Road to Perdition (2002) and James Bond's Skyfall (2012) and Spectre (2015). He is also known for the dark re-inventions of the stage musicals Cabaret (1994), Oliver! (1994), Company (1995), and Gypsy (2003).

For the first time with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2013), he supervised an original West End stage musical.

In 2019, Mendes, the play's producer, was given the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play. Mendes was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in 2000 for "services to drama" and the Alfred Toepfer Foundation in Hamburg, Germany, in the same year.

He received the Directors Guild of Great Britain's lifetime achievement award in 2005.

In 2008, The Daily Telegraph ranked him at number 15 on their list of the "100 most influential people in British culture" list.

Early life

Mendes was born in Reading, Berkshire, on August 1, 1965. Valerie Mendes (born Barnett), a publisher and writer, and Jameson Peter Mendes, a university professor, are his uncles. His father is a Roman Catholic of Portuguese descent from Trinidad, and his mother is an English Jew. Alfred Hubert Mendes, a Trinidadian writer, was his grandfather.

When Mendes was three years old, he and his mother moved in Primrose Hill in North London. He attended Primrose Hill Primary School and was in the same class with future Foreign Secretary David Miliband and author Zo Heller. The family moved to Woodstock, Oxfordshire, where Mendes' mother found work as a senior editor at Oxford University Press in 1976. Mendes was educated at Magdalen College School, where he met future theatre designer Tom Piper, who would continue to work with Mendes on Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party.

Mendes had an early interest in cinema and applied to University of Warwick (the only university in the United Kingdom to offer an undergraduate film course), but was turned down. He was then accepted by Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he obtained first-class honours in English. Mendes first discovered a passion for theatre in his late teens, became a member of the Marlowe Society in Cambridge and directed several plays. His first performance, Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs, was directed by David Halliwell, and Cyrano de Bergerac was one of his later productions starring Tom Hollander and Jonathan Cake. Mendes became ardently about cinema during his stay in Cambridge. As three "seminal film moments" that influenced his stage and film career, he cited Paris, Texas, Repo Man, and True Stories.

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack referred to Mendes as a "brilliant schoolboy cricketer" and taking 83 wickets at Magdalen College School in 1983 and 1984. He also played cricket for Cambridge University and spent time in Shipton-under-Wychwood in the 1997 Village Cricket Cup final, making him the only winner of the Academy Award for Best Director to have competed at Lord's.

Personal life

When Mendes approached Kate Winslet about appearing in a play at Donmar Warehouse, where he was then artistic director, he was delighted. They married in May 2003 on what they described as a whim while on vacation in Anguilla when Winslet was two months pregnant with their baby. Joe Alfie Winslet Mendes was born in New York City on December 22, 2003. Mia, Winslet's first marriage to filmmaker Jim Threapleton, was also a stepdaughter for Mendes.

Despite a lot of media rumors regarding Mendes and actress Rebecca Hall, the actor and actress announced their divorce in 2010 and divorced in 2011. Mendes and Hall were in a relationship from 2011 to 2013. Alison Balsom, a composer from Mendes, married trumpeter Alison Balsom in January 2017. Phoebe's daughter was born in September 2017.

In the 2020 New Years Honours List for services to drama, Mendes was named a Knight Bachelor.

After Polanski was arrested in Switzerland in 1977 for drugging and raping a 13-year-old teen, Mendes signed a petition in favour of film director Roman Polanski, calling for his release.

Mendes is a Brexit deterrent. "I'm afraid that the winds that were blowing before the First World War are blasted again," Trump said in 2017. We were fighting for a free and unified Europe this decade, which we would do well to recall."

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Stage career

Mendes was hired as an assistant director at the Chichester Festival Theatre after graduating from Cambridge in 1987. Mendes made his professional directing debut in September 1988 with two Anton Chekhov plays The Bear and The Proposal. He was appointed the inaugural director of the Minerva Theatre in 1989.

Mendes took over a production of Dion Boucicault's London Assurance at Chichester in 1989, following the abrupt departure of director Robin Phillips. Mendes made his West End debut with a production of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard starring Judi Dench later this year. Following a six-month absence at Chichester, London Assurance moved to the West End, opening at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. Mendes was formally recognized as a national theatre director by the success of the performances.

Mendes was appointed artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse, a Covent Garden studio space previously used by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1990. He spent two years directing the renovation of the theatre, which opened in 1992 with the British premiere of Stephen Sondheim's Assassins. Mendes' time at the Donmar marked the company's transformation into one of London's most fashionable and fashionable playhouses.

Mendes staged an unforgettable revival of John Kander and Fred Ebb's Cabaret starring Jane Horrocks and Alan Cumming as Emcee in 1993. The production was approached with a new vision, departing sharply from both Harold Prince's original 1966 film version and Bob Fosse's famed film version. This play opened at the Donmar and received four Olivier Award nominations, including Best Musical Revival, before transferring to Broadway where it spent many years at the Kit Kat Club (i.e. (The Stephen Sondheim Theater) Cumming as Emcee was reprised as Emcee by Peterborough, with Natasha Richardson as Sally, Mary Louise Wilson as Frau Schneider, and John Benjamin Hickey as Cliff. Cumming and Richardson were honoured by Tony Awards for their appearances.

Mendes' Oliver!, produced by Cameron Mackintosh, was the first performance on stage in 1994. Mendes, a long-time devotee of the art, worked closely with Bart and other production team members, Martin Koch, and Anthony Ward, to produce a new version of the well-known masterpiece. Bart added new musical elements and Mendes updated the book slightly, while the orchestrations were rewritten to reflect the show's cinematic feel. Jonathan Pryce (after much perplexation) as Fagin, Sally Dexter as Nancy, and Bill Sikes as Bill Sikes appeared on the film. Mendes, Pryce, and Dexter were nominated for their work on Oliver by Olivier Award recipients.

Mendes produced The Blue Room, starring Nicole Kidman; Three Days of Rain in 1998, with Colin Firth, David Morrissey, and Elizabeth McGovern; and Ken Campbell's Farewell Duo in 2002, followed by Simon Russell Beale, Helen McCrory, Mark Strong, and Mark Strong, as well as his Farewell Duo in 1999, featuring Sebastian Kidman; and Richard Greenberg's Uncle Vanya and Twelfth Night, starring Nicole Kidman In December 2002, he resigned as the Donmar's artistic director, and Michael Grandage took over.

Mendes curated a revival of the musical Gypsy in 2003. Originally, he had intended to stage this performance in London's West End as part of a future Broadway transfer, but negotiations fell through, and he moved it to New York. Bernadette Peters played Rose, Tammy Blanchard as Louise, and John Dossett as Herbie.

Mendes also starred in the 2013 Olivier Award-nominated stage version of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which appeared in London's West End until January 2017. Douglas Hodge appeared as Willy Wonka, Alex Jennings, and Jonathan Slinger, who later took over the role.

Mendes directed Simon Russell Beale in King Lear by William Shakespeare at the National Theatre in London in 2014. Mendes directed Jez Butterworth's The Ferryman at the Royal Court Theatre in London in 2017, before transferring to the West End and Broadway in 2018, for which he received an Olivier Award and Tony Award for Best Director.

In 2018, Mendes directed The Lehman Trilogy by Stefano Massini in an English translation by Ben Power for the National Theatre, London, starring Simon Russell Beale, Adam Godley, and Ben Miles. The play lasted a season at the Park Avenue Armory in New York before returning to London in the West End for a second time. The play made its Broadway debut in 2020 briefly, but it was postponed due to the Covid pandemic. In 2021, the play appeared in 2021 and went on to receive eight Tony Award nominations, including Best Play and Best Director of a Play.

Film career

Mendes made his film directorial debut with American Beauty in 1999, starring Kevin Spacey. Steven Spielberg, who was captivated by Oliver's performances, had approached him. Cabaret and Cabaret are among the many things that can be described as "insignificant." The film earned $356.3 million around the world. The film received the Golden Globe Award, the BAFTA Award, and the Academy Award for Best Picture. Mendes received the Golden Globe Award, Directors Guild of America Award, and Academy Award for Best Director, making him the sixth director to be honoured with the Academy Award for his debut in the feature film.

Road to Perdition, Mendes' second film, which grossed US$181 million, was his second film, which was released in 2002. Rotten Tomatoes' overall review score has risen to 81%; critics lauded Paul Newman for his work. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actor for Newman; it was nominated for Best Cinematography.

Mendes founded Neal Street Productions, a film, television, and theatre production company that he would use to finance a large portion of his later work. Mendes directed Jarhead, a war film produced in association with his production company Neal Street Productions in 2005. The film received mixed feedback, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 61% and a gross sales of US$96.9 million worldwide. The film centered on wartime boredom and other psychological challenges.

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Mendes co-produced Out of the Ashes, a critically acclaimed documentary film that examines cricket in Afghanistan in 2010. Mendes was hired to direct the 23rd Eon Productions instalment of the James Bond franchise on January 5, 2010. Skyfall, a sequel to the Bond films' 50th anniversary, was subsequently released on October 26, 2012. When the film was being shot, Mendes had been hired as a consultant on it and had remained committed to the project through MGM's financial difficulties. The film was a huge critical and commercial success, grossing over $1 billion worldwide on its 14th film. Call the Midwife, Mendes' first series of the BBC One drama series, was released in early 2013.

When Mendes' success, he was asked if he would direct the next Bond film. "I felt I put everything I could into this film, and it was the Bond film I wanted to make," he said. And if I thought I could do the same thing again, I would highly recommend doing another one. It's a big challenge, and I wouldn't do it unless I knew I could." According to a source, Mendes was reluctant to commit because one reason, based on an idea by Skyfall writer John Logan, was that one proposal involved making two films back-to-back, which would have resulted in Mendes and other creative staff being tied up with filming for around four years. This idea had since been shelved and that the next two films would be stand-alone, according to a publication in February 2013. "It's been a very difficult decision not to accept Michael and Barbara's generous invitation to direct the next Bond film," Mendes said in an interview with film magazine Empire in March 2013. Among other things, he referred to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and King Lear's role in the production.

However, Mendes had been back in talks with producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli to direct the new Bond film on May 29, 2013, going back to his previous remarks. Wilson and Broccoli were able to postpone the film to ensure Mendes' presence. Mendes would direct the 24th James Bond film, Spectre, on July 11, 2013, which was announced in October 2015. This made him the first filmmaker since John Glen to direct two Bond films in a row. Mendes was named President of the Jury for the 73rd Venice International Film Festival in April 2016.

Universal Pictures in the United States and the United Kingdom announced Mendes' new film, a war epic 1917, on the 25th of December 2019 and on the 10th of January 2020. It chronicles two young British soldiers' lives in 1917, part based on an account that was told to Mendes by his paternal grandfather, Alfred Mendes, and in his acceptance address, Mendes praised his grandfather for his service in the film and acknowledged his contributions to cinema of fellow nominee Martin Scorsese. He received the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film on January 25, 2020, after which he was chosen by the press as the nominee to receive the Academy Award for Best Director at the time's 92nd Academy Awards. However, the accolade went instead to Bong Joon-ho for the South Korean film Parasite. A few weeks ago, the two directors announced their awards for directing at the 25th Critics' Choice Awards.

It was reported in 2021 that Mendes' next film would be Empire of Light starring Olivia Colman.

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